CRITICISM, opera. Geneva, Victoria Hall, October 26, 2021. MONTEVERDI: The Return of Ulisse to his Homeland. I Gemelli | Classic News

CRITICISM, opera. Geneva, Victoria Hall, October 26, 2021. MONTEVERDI: The Return of Ulisse to his Homeland. The Swiss-Chilean tenor Emiliano Gonzalez Toro and his ensemble I Gemelli now compose a formidable troupe which breathes into the action of Ulisse (Venice, 1641), its verve and its moral force while erasing none of its tragic and languorous sequences. , food and lovers; the collective proposes a conception of the action conceived by Monteverdi and his librettist Badoaro… involved, coherent, contrary to the image defended until then, which made it a dark and pessimistic drama. Protected by Minerva, Ulysses left by the Phaeacians, finally lands on the coasts of his kingdom without recognizing him; Clever and disguised Minerva teaches him a sense of disguise and reasoned cunning; and under the wing of the creative goddess, the regenerated hero, who made it possible to defeat the Trojans (thanks to the horse which is his idea), learns critical observation, the delights of transformation, facetious intelligence; Emiliano Gonzalez Toro builds his character and his action with energy and finesse that allow him to conquer what is his due: his kingdom, his status, his son and especially his wife, the beautiful Penelope. Ulysses, a hero not defeated and tired but mischievous, who shines with his constancy, his tenacity... his formidable resilience, his art of creative revenge; in short, a modern hero. This is what seizes this evening and establishes the value of the production.

Nothing is missing here in terms of drama: sensuality and languor but also insolent frankness (Melanto); arrogance (the 3 suitors), benevolent tenderness (Télémaque or d'Eumee)… Without forgetting the food and delirious character of the gluttonous Iro, emblem of Venetian opera who likes to mix genres. We wondered about the meaning of this role: does he not incarnate the sufficiency of the pretending sovereigns [moreover, does he not depend totally on them?] Hence his dismay when he realizes that no one will be able to feed him after Odysseus kills all his protectors? Iro also represents everything that opposes the world of amorous shepherds, celebrating the harmony of nature [Eumete] and the political intriguers foreign to all poetry: Iro sees in nature only animals to be devoured. Monteverdi wonders here about human destiny through the journey of Ulysses, hence the character of human fragility in the prologue. But while the Homeric tradition tends to always make the fate of men depend on the mood of the gods [in this case that of Neptune... a frank opponent of the hero] Badoaro and Monteverdi dare to compose a determined and rebellious hero, ready to follow the deity who infuses him with cunning and resistance. In sum, the authors here shape a hero who has conquered his own destiny by his will. The message is clear. Ulysses is the flash that amazes even Penelope who, immersed in her mourning, has lost all hope, subjected to her state of inconsolable widow. Ulysses is here a solar hero who regains possession of what he thought he had lost.

The title role is a challenge for any singer-actor: it even renews the typology of the Monteverdian hero since his previous Orfeo, composed 35 years earlier. In the meantime, the author has delivered his VIIIth book of madrigals (dramatics), a brilliant source from which Ulisse draws directly (see the stile concitato reserved for suitors, for example).

Incredible Monteverdian thought which will produce in his opera to follow the exact opposite of Ulysses: Nero, effeminate adolescent, who does not control his passions and, incapable of any strategic reasoning, sinks into the lascivious dizziness inspired by the coquette and ambitious Poppea (L'Incoronazione di Poppea, 1643). When Orfeo was published by the burning troupe, the intelligence of this Ulisse convinced and we were already thinking of the Coronation of Poppea, the last Monteverdian work that closes the trilogy of operas reached. Such a set should not stop there: it will necessarily have to approach Poppea...

Especially since the success of this Ulisse is first and foremost due to the continuous brilliance of the instrumental continuum, flexible, articulated, precise under the direction of Violaine Cochard, who constantly monitors the balance between voice and instruments.

Master of vocal distribution, Emiliano Gonzalez Toro offers us a rare collection of soloists who are both technically solid and skilfully characterized. With such a chiseled vocal adornment, the listener can revel in the nuances each brings to their character design. “Let's dare” to write that here the absence of staging takes nothing away from the splendid coherence of what is above all a collective artistic experience united by the spirit of the troupe. What is mostly missing in a lot of production.

Ulisse by I Gemelli

In Geneva, in the acoustic setting of the Victoria hall, the thousand nuances conceived by Monteverdi, then at the height of his theatrical genius, are revealed. Human, tender, fraternal, tenor Philippe Talbot embodies the shepherd Eumete, defector from the pastoralism of but with a fully baroque writing, rich in ariosos, agile, melismatic that the intelligence of the soloist by his naturalness, his airy fluidity, his inebriated phrasings makes right even overwhelming; his celebration of nature, his meeting and his complicity with Ulysses / old man, are remarkable in credibility.

An opera of tenors, the drama is a fiery arena where the timbres of each singer are exposed, each as they say, according to their sense of characterization: heroic and hard-hitting, Telemachus by Zachary Wilder; ductile, lascivious, arrogant, Anders Dahlin's Pisandro dares the bet [winning] of vocal delirium as scenic; the same infatuated arrogance coupled with a beautiful concern for the text for Anthony Leon [Jupiter and Anfinomo];

Two other soloists ideally stand out at an equally excellent level, Fulvio Bettini's gluttonous Iro, an impeccable buffoonish presence who also knows how to balance the spirit of grotesque farce and satire skilfully put together by the authors. It is a satirical double contrasting with the noble humanity of Odysseus.

Same total credibility for Nicolas Brooymans: the flexible bass as well stamped as articulated, characterizes the suitor Antinoo, with great class.

On the singer's side, the hemmed, expressive soprano, with a well-articulated smoothness of Emöke Baráth, Minerva Sovereign, intoxicates with each sequence: the singer, current star of Baroque singing, also knows how to reinvent herself when she appears at the start of the action, in the guise of a young shepherd from Ithaca… The performance remains memorable.

A more frail silhouette but also touched by the intelligence of mischief, Mathilde Etienne's Melanto (which also signs the setting in space, rather effective) underlines here the seduction of a shrewd mocker; she tries in vain to influence Penelope's mourning. Precisely the queen of Ithaca, inconsolable tears finds a tragic presence intelligently articulated in the warm and unctuous medium of the mezzo Riab Chaieb: not easy to color and illuminate from the inside this gray, bereaved role for which Monteverdi wrote one of his most beautiful laments, prefiguring that to come of the inconsolable Octavia in the opera which follows L'incoronazione di Poppea. The character remains in the same vein from beginning to end, definitively refraining from any idea of ​​remarriage until the final competition, the idea of ​​which is prompted by Minerva. Even at the end, despite Eumete's insistence, Telemaque , Eurycleia, the queen struggles to erase the denial and pain that blind her; even the victorious archer Ulysses awakens in her no awareness that the son Telemachus and Eumete have immediately recognized the victorious hero of the Trojans. Torrez affirms a remarkable dramatic truth, a human presence which touches by its common sense and its tenderness [for the queen]; after scruples that compel her reason [“all truth is not good to say”], the next one goes beyond her nature and “dares” to give reason to Telemaque and Eumete, by testifying that Ulysses is indeed back.

Finally, project leader, unifying soloist, Emiliano Gonzalez Toro while he also sings Orfeo, offers a very embodied conception of Ulysses, from the first scene where he awakens to life as if drawn from a dream, from the warrior exhausted, yet determined to regain his status, his kingdom and against the suitors, his wife. The concern for the text, the articulation of the ariosos, the coherence of the song, his clever and reasoned, patient and prepared spirit, ring true.

All the other singers are not lacking in commitment.

This changes the usual understanding of a drama which, after reading Harnoncourt / Ponnelle rather dark and cynical, switches to a tremendous lesson in courage and human will. This is also what repairs the current oblivion in which the score dies: Ulisse is one of the most important roles in Italian Baroque opera. And EG Toro reminds us of this with forceful argumentation. We will follow step by step the stages which extend the performances of Ulisse by I Gemelli this month of October: the disc is announced in a year, in the fall of 2022.

READ also our presentation of Ulisse by I Gemelli.http://www.classiquenews.com/geneve-emiliano-gonzalez-toro-chante-ulisse/

______________________________________________CRITICAL, opera. Geneva, Victoria Hall, October 26, 2021. MONTEVERDI: The Return of Ulisse to his Homeland.

Cast: Emiliano Gonzalez Toro | Ulisse, directionRihab Chaieb | Penelope Emőke Baráth | Minerva / AmoreCarlo Vistoli | Humana FragilitàZachary Wilder | TelemacoJérôme Varnier | Nettuno / TempoPhilippe Talbot | EumeteFulvio Bettini | IroÁlvaro Zambrano | EurimacoMathilde Etienne | MelantoAnthony Leon | Giove / AnfinomoLauranne Oliva | Giunone / FortunaAngelica Monje Torrez | EricleaAnders Dahlin | Pisandro Nicolas Brooymans | Antinoo

Set I Gemelli